The copulative construction in Bantu with special reference to Zulu

Abstract

SYNOPSIS The copulative construction in Bantu presents many puzzling and unusual features to the European student. Much of the obscurity which surrounds the construction is a result of the efforts of earlier grammarians to force it into the same pattern as the common type of construction in European languages with an ever present verb “to be”. This paper represents an endeavour to fit Bantu, and the peculiarities of its copulative construction, into the broader picture of the language families of the world, in applying the more universal features of the construction to it. It is found that Bantu fits quite easily into this “universal” pattern of the construction and, in fact, has not evolved to any great extent from the ancient form of it. This form, which is still quite common to‐day, consists of the mere juxtaposing of the subject and its copulative predicate, withou t any change to the latter or any “copula” verb between them. A suggestion is made regarding the origin and function of the invariable cop...